How do we facilitate a discussion with our employees on the meaning of career development? We want to ask probing questions that give us a meaningful plan of action. We know from a recent employee survey that most of our staff is not satisfied with our career development and we need to start a conversation to make improvements.
—Career Doldrums, assistant human resources manager, mining/oil/gas, Singapore

Although the toolmaker does not use the event to directly recruit students, the hope is that some of the participants will consider manufacturing careers. A larger goal is to help usher in a 'renaissance in manufacturing' in the United States by immersing them in the details of the industry.

Women make up about a quarter of the manufacturing industry's workforce, according to a report by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute. The same report suggests the industry should actively focus on recruiting women to hundreds of thousands of empty positions.